ForGivingTuesday, we invite you to join FOCRLS in rising to the challenge to help meet needs that this pandemic has created for many CRLS students and their families.
Your generous contribution will help FOCRLS to:
Provide supermarketvouchers for CRLS students and their families facing hunger through Falcon’s Market (Use this link or see below.)
Provide assistance to staff and faculty working to meet student needs
Provide funds for scholarships for FOCRLS seniors struggling to realize their academic dreams
Because our FOCRLS community is so generous, we know that your donation will mean that FOCRLS can work to address these critical challenges for our staff, faculty, students and their families.
or make your check payable to Friends of CRLS, write “Holiday FY21 Giving Tuesday” or “Falcon’s Market” on the memo line and mail to:
Friends of CRLS P.O. Box 391541 Cambridge MA 02139
To get a sense of how your donation can make an impact, meet a few of our FOCRLS scholarship recipients below:
Thank you for choosing Friends of CRLS this GivingTuesday!
Please visitfocrls.orgto learn more about our programs and awardees, volunteering, donating, establishing a scholarship, or getting your business involved.
Dear Friends of Cambridge Rindge and Latin School,
This year, in our current COVID reality, as we feel challenged to remember our blessings and look for hope, we can seek comfort and connection through community and find meaning by helping CRLS parents and children whose struggles are greater than ours.In the face of the COVID crisis, FOCRLS has worked to rise to the challenge.
To respond to the increased need for food assistance, FOCRLS was able to expand an existing partnership with the CRLS Family Liaison through a city grant to provide $100 Market Basket vouchers to 100 struggling families. In spite of having to cancel our Spring Bash because of the pandemic, we were still able to provide $55,000 in scholarships to 36 members of the CRLS Class of 2020; this was possible because of the incredible generosity of so many of you and our local corporate sponsors, particularly Google, Philips North America LLC, and CambridgeSeven. To help CRLS parents find a way to meet each other and connect, FOCRLS held a virtual get together in early November.
In the coming months, FOCRLS will seek new ways to support our faculty challenged by remote learning; provide opportunities for parents to connect; and continue to support CRLS families who are struggling because of the economic devastation that the pandemic has created. Above all, we must support our graduating seniors who will need financial assistance ─ and there will be more than ever before ─ to pursue their academic goals.
“As I pursue my degree I know that it will not be easy financially or academically, but with the help of this scholarship I was able to eliminate some of my financial struggles, which allows me to focus more on my school work.” ─ Ralph (pictured), our Class of 2020 Mary Frances Monti Memorial Scholarship awardee, now studying software engineering at George Washington University
To make all of this possible, we ask for your support. One of the best things that has emerged from this COVID crisis is the countless examples of acts of generosity. And we know that you will be providing one more example.
Donate online at focrls.org (automatic recurring monthly gifts are especially appreciated) or mail a check payable to Friends of CRLS, along with your contact information, to Friends of CRLS, P.O. Box 391541, Cambridge MA 02139.
Because of your past generosity, we know, with the need so VERY great this year, that we can count on you to provide more generously than ever!
Gratefully,
Jamie Sabino President, FOCRLS Board of Directors
Your donation is tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law. FOCRLS is a 501(c)3 nonprofit.
To learn about our programs or find out more about donating, establishing a scholarship, involving your business, or volunteering, please visit focrls.org.
FOCRLS CRLS Parents Welcome Party Tuesday, November 10th 7:00-8:00 PM Please R.S.V.P. with your name and your child’s grade to info@focrls.org Zoom info to follow
Dear CRLS Parents and Caregivers,
In these times when it is so hard to connect, this will be your chance to meet other CRLS parents and share experiences, joys, and concerns.
We’ll open with a Welcome Session and then have class-by-class Breakout Rooms, giving you an opportunity to connect with others.
We look forward to seeing you (on our computer screens)!
We hope you’ll read, enjoy, and be inspired by the content that we’ve collected inour new annual reportto remind you that bydonating to Friends of CRLSyou’re investing in the future – not just these students’ futures, but in the future for all of us.
Highlights:
Photos and quotations from many of our Class of 2020 scholarship awardees who are now starting their first year in college. See their rosy faces and read their own words about their plans, how scholarships bring their goals closer, and their thanks for your support.
Thank You to Salman, our youth from the Mayor’s Summer Youth Employment Program (MSYEP). He’s been gathering interviews with our 2020 scholarship awardees and Bash event sponsors. Being able to share the impact that college scholarships make in students’ lives and some of the reasons sponsors decide to support Friends of CRLS’s programs will help us raise funds for future College Scholarships, Faculty Innovation Grants, and Student Travel Fellowships.
Here’s a bit about him:
“My name is Salman, and I am a rising junior at the Belmont Hill School. My favorite sport is soccer and I have been playing competitively for about 10 years now. I am from Cambridge and attended VLUS for middle school and went to the Haggerty School for elementary school. I am very excited to be working with Friends of CRLS this summer!”
Enjoy the rest of summer, Salman, and have a great junior year!
Friends of Cambridge Rindge & Latin School (FOCRLS) would like to share with the community an appreciation of Christopher Saheed, who was a key collaborator in forming our organization. As the high school’s principal at the time, he provided invaluable advice and encouragement to Elaine Schear and Donna Spiegelman, the two CRLS parents who founded our non-profit in 2006 to support opportunities for students, graduates, and faculty. “Although we were brand new CRLS parents when we approached Dr. Saheed about starting a non-profit, he didn’t flinch. He even made sure FOCRLS had an office at the school,” said Dr. Schear. “We soon were offering grants to faculty for innovative projects – his idea for how to support a range of students and faculty and become visible at the school. This was Chris: purposeful, down-to-earth, supportive.” Since 2007, FOCRLS has awarded Faculty Innovation Grants, each up to $1,000, to hundreds of teachers, club advisers, counselors, librarians, social workers, and administrators for projects expanding the curriculum beyond the normal budget.
Dr. Saheed, who held degrees from Tufts University, Suffolk University, and Harvard University, retired from CRLS in 2011 and then moved to Florida. He succumbed to pancreatic cancer on June 25, 2020, after a three-year battle.
When FOCRLS reached out to James Maloney, Chief Operating Officer of the District (Cambridge Public Schools), for a memory about Dr. Saheed, he responded, “I had the good fortune of working closely with Chris during his years as the principal of CRLS on the renovation of the high school. I was struck by his calm, knowledgeableand caring demeanor. All of the buildings on the campus today reflect his vision for the school. In many ways the high school campus is a living memorial to his passion for the students of Cambridge. He was a tremendous leader.”
In honor of Dr. Saheed’s retirement and with the generosity of an anonymous benefactor, FOCRLS established a scholarship. Since 2012, FOCRLS has awarded these scholarships to ease college costs for academically and financially qualified CRLS seniors planning to pursue careers in the field of education.
Around the time of his diagnosis, Dr. Saheed contributed $5,000 to the fund, becoming the sponsor of the annual scholarship from 2018 through 2022. Several of Dr. Saheed’s friends donated in his memory, some providing moving tributes.
Ed Hashek and John Jors said, “Christopher and his husband Stephen Nonack have been our best friends for a number of years. He will be truly missed – such a generous, intelligent, and caring person.”
“Dr. Saheed was a gentle, inspiring educator, and an exceptional human being,” said friend Patrick Ladden, an educator and museum director. “It took many months before he disclosed his own background and education achievements, as he mostly was enthusiastic to talk about CRLS, not himself.”
Dr. Saheed shared 43 of his 67 years with Stephen Z. Nonack, who also studied at Tufts University, where the two met in 1973 before making their relationship permanent in 1977, as well as Simmons University and UMass Boston, and built his career at the Boston Athenaeum as an archivist and librarian. Before Mr. Nonack passed away in December 2024, he made financial arrangements for FOCRLS to be able to continue to present the scholarship for many years to come. In appreciation, FOCRLS renamed the scholarship, now called the Dr. Christopher Saheed & Stephen Z. Nonack Future Educators Scholarship.
If you’d like to help carry on the Dr. Christopher Saheed & Stephen Z. Nonack Future Educators Scholarship, please visit this donation page>>.
.jpg)
.jpg)
